Why does god want to cut off women's hands?

[John V]

It depends on what the law is designed to enforce. If the law is constructed so as to protect the people who are to follow it, then most times, not so. When the law is nothing more than a tool to legitimize a despot's arbitrary whims, as is the case with God's law with its multifarious examples of harsh and disproportionate retribution, then it is, at best, tantamount to making psychopathic behavior official.

The statute is apparently designed to discourage violence.

Except, the likelihood of this is virtually nonexistent, and it's irrelevant either way.

Effectiveness as a deterrent is quite relevant.

Perhaps that says something about the functionality of your penis, but a man without his penis is inconvenienced. A woman without a hand is seriously handicapped.

I'd say loss of a hand is much less serious than loss of ability to reproduce.

Compromise implies an imperfect system, which implies an imperfect god. Can't have your cake and eat it, too.

Compromise implies imperfect people. Jesus says straight out that OT divorce law was a compromise.